Kimodameshi
by peanutbutter126
Summary: I dare you to stop loving me." Naruto had never lost a dare until Sakura Haruno came along.


I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

This came to me in the shower after I updated My Life Would Suck Without You. I think I've been playing too much Truth or Dare with my friends...

Kimodameshi means dare in japanese; more accurately a test of guts.

* * *

**Kimodameshi**

In all his life, Naruto Uzumaki had never lost a dare. He had called Chouji fat and gotten away with it and mucked up on his graduation photo. He had run around the village with orange boxers on his head and stolen the Hokage's hat and had successfully kept it on his head for an hour. Those that dared him were grudgingly impressed. Naruto wasn't afraid of doing anything.

It was not a rumour that Naruto had been friendless during his initial days at the Academy. He had come to know Shikamaru, Chouji and Kiba but before that, Naruto had always sat by himself at lunch. Dares were his bare connections to his classmates. It was only his will to please and fit in that drove him to fulfil the more humiliating challenges. They didn't always make him happy and they hardly ever earned him what he wanted, but Naruto had never lost a dare before.

He didn't tell her the painful purpose behind the dares when he bragged about it to Sakura. She did not question his record – Naruto Uzumaki was larger than life and she knew it. She was keen to witness it first hand, though. And that was how the dares started.

Sakura's dares were almost always rational but there were times when they were silly. It was different to his childhood ones. Naruto found that he enjoyed entertaining her.

"Shishou drinks too much sake, don't you agree?"

"Yeah. Sooner or later she won't be able to sneak around Shizune because she smells like a sake vat."

"Alright then. I dare you to confiscate Shishou's sake for a month."

"Deal."

"And come out alive."

"… Damn."

But somehow he succeeded. Even Naruto himself was not quite sure how he managed to even breathe with the furious Hokage's tyrannical presence bearing down on him. It took Tsunade two days to realise that her sake had been replaced with flavoured water, and two minutes to come to the conclusion that a certain brat was responsible. Thankfully Naruto had already escaped on a week-long mission to Wave.

"See?" Naruto crowed to Sakura. "I'm good, aren't I? Now you have to take me out to Ichiraku's!"

Sakura looked amused and chagrined at the same time. "No more than ten bowls," she warned. "You're going to cost me a fortune."

He just grinned. "Ne, so do you have another dare for me?"

"Why? Do you like them?"

"Sort of."

She had to think about it. It wasn't until he prompted her after their meal that she gave him one. "I dare you talk like Lee for a week."

Naruto blanched. "You are evil," he whispered.

"Do you want to dress like him as well? Come on, Lee isn't that bad."

He sighed, resigning himself to his fate. "Yosh! The Flames of Youth _buuuurn!"_

There was a period of time when their dares fell into a lapse. The Akatsuki began to mobilise and the Leaf Village was in a constant state of tension and preparation. Naruto and Sakura barely had time to see each other, let alone joke and play around. Even when they had time together, both were too tired to do anything but spend it collapsed on Naruto's couch.

Then, in what others would have called the 'final showdown', Sakura caught up with him before he left the temporary base of operations Yamato had constructed. Naruto was sneaking out without backup. He didn't ask how she knew he was leaving, only stopped at the sound of her voice, turned and wrapped her in a wordless embrace.

"Baka," she whispered. "Baka… why do you always want to do things on your own?"

He hated worrying her so he made himself smile. "Don't you worry, Sakura. I have a plan and it'll work, I swear. I'll beat Pain and be back before you know it."

She was persistent. "Baka. Baka, baka, baka!"

"Shh, you'll wake the others…"

She pulled away, staring deep into his eyes. "You're not going to let me come with you, are you?"

"Nope."

And she was back in his arms, burrowing her face into his chest. Her voice was muffled. "I dare you to come back alive."

Naruto closed his eyes briefly, swallowing down everything that was disturbing his resolve. "Okay."

It wasn't a promise; it was a dare. Either way, Naruto never went back on his word.

Somehow… things weren't the same when they returned home. There was an unexplainable distance between them. Naruto assumed he had done something wrong – perhaps she was upset with him leaving her behind again. He tried to cheer her up, but when that failed he heeded Shikamaru's advice and gave Sakura some space.

Then their fights started coming in abundance, breaking to the point where Naruto felt he had to avoid her to keep their bond alive. He didn't know what was wrong. Ino told him Sakura was miserable. He'd never felt so… helpless.

It took a month. A month for him to realise that he was looking at it the wrong way. He wasn't _supposed_ to stand and watch from a distance. He was Naruto Uzumaki. He rushed into things headfirst without thinking them through. Why was he hesitating?

He waited outside the hospital for her. She did not walk out the doors until it was almost midnight. At first Naruto thought she was deliberately trying evade him, but when he saw the look of wonder on her face he kicked himself for thinking like that. Hadn't he played under the same rules?

It was raining; she had an umbrella, he didn't. "You're going to catch a cold," she said half-heartedly, but he stepped back when she tried to shelter him.

Water was dripping down his face, drenched locks of hair plastered to his chilled skin. "What did I do wrong, Sakura?"

"Naruto, you didn't…"

"I'll change, I swear I will. Just tell me-"

Sakura… snapped. "It's not about you!" She had tossed the umbrella away. Her shoulders were shaking, her head lowered.

He stared at her. "Sakura…" Sweeping her hair from her face, he gazed at her. "I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "It's not about you," she repeated. Then she turned away. "Why are you the one apologising, Naruto?"

"I…"

"I was scared."

"Sakura?" Naruto walked around and tried to peer at her face.

"When you left to fight… I was scared you wouldn't come back." God, she wasn't crying, was she?

His chuckle sounded weak even to him. "I've never lost a dare, remember?"

She didn't seem to hear him. "You're such a risk-taker… I didn't want to face the fact that you would probably… die before me." She raised her eyes to meet his, rain falling between them. "I was _scared_, Naruto."

It felt as if someone had torn his heart from his chest and crushed it. This was what Naruto had feared. He was hurting her. He couldn't blame Sakura. At first he had been afraid that he was too… dangerous for her. But she had convinced him that it didn't matter. He tried to remember her words, tried to use them to assure _her._ Except they didn't come out, and all he could do was hold her and wish that everything would work out. He didn't want to lose her.

"I'm sorry," he murmured. "I'm sorry, Sakura. I'm sorry."

"Stop it. You idiot… idiot!" Her voice was muffled again, her slim body shivering under his touch. "I dare you… I dare you to stop loving me."

His arms cinched tighter around her as he kissed the top of her head. "Don't be an idiot, Sakura."

She told him she was sorry, that she knew she was an idiot, that she had no idea how things could have gone so badly. She told him she loved him.

"Right," he said softly after he had taken her to his apartment and made her shower. "You've given me so many dares. My turn, don't you think?"

"I'm in trouble, aren't I?" She reached for his hand.

"I dare you to stay with me forever, even when we're old and our teeth are falling out and our soccer-team of children need to piggy-back us everywhere and-"

She gagged him with her lips, smiling. "Alright."

Naruto added dares to the list of things he had lost.

But he was never going to lose her.


End file.
